Chapter 14: Using Dual Quaternions for Skinning
The current skinning implementation blends between skin weights linearly, and this is called Linear Blended Skinning (LBS) or, sometimes, Linear Skin Blending. Linearly blending the skin does not preserve the volume of a model, which introduces skinning artifacts. An easy way to visualize this artifact is to twist one end of a rectangle by 180 degrees, as shown in the following screenshot:
Figure 14.1: Comparing linear blended and dual quaternion skinning
An alternate to Linear Skin Blending is Dual Quaternion Skin Blending. When dual quaternions are used, the volume of the model is maintained. In this chapter, you will implement dual quaternion mesh skinning. By the end of this chapter, you should be able to use dual quaternions to skin an animated character. The following topics are covered in this chapter:
- Introducing dual quaternions
- Implementing dual quaternions
- Skinning with dual quaternions...
